Trinity Hill travelling south just before River Cottage BIG pothole 8-10 inches deep and about 4 ft long it has been report.

New layout of first junction to Axminster on A35 as you come down the hill Hunters Lodge, the double white lines have been extended up to the start of the the turn right safety box the orange box is now a NO GO zone this will become very dangerous during days of high traffic volumes as if your turning right in to Axminster you will have to stop on the A35 and block the road until you can get into the small turn right box.

That is madness. If turning right, I always use the hatched area to approach the junction and wait out of the flow of ongoing traffic.

As I understand it the hatchings are advisory to people going through the junction not to overtake at that point ?

G.

Thatís the intelligent interpretation. Obviously the Highways Agency are a little lacking in this department. By previously moving over onto the hatching and then decelerating you were inconveniencing no one. The new layout will last until there is a serious accident. Remember in the early days of the Charmouth bypass everyone knew that the turn off to Charmouth, when approaching from the west, was a death trap. The roundabout was not put in until a German tourist demonstrated the danger with his life.

You always dice with deaf opposite Raymondís Hill post office when turning into Harcombe Road sat in the middle of the road with traffic whizzing around you. We will now have a similar situation when travelling to Axminster._________________It's later than you think

"Could you please explain why the road markings have been changed at the junction between the A35 and the B3261 (Lyme Road, Axminster).

Westbound A35 traffic wanting to turn right onto the B3261 for Axminster is now unable to enter the hatched area (which is intended to protect stationary traffic waiting to turn right) because the double white lines have been extended for the whole length of the hatched protection zone.

Previously at times of heavy traffic it is quite common for there to be several cars waiting to turn right at the junction and until recently they were able to do this in the hatched area, allowing the westbound lane to flow freely. However, the new markings will have the effect that stationary traffic will be forced to queue in the westbound lane, bringing it to an abrupt standstill.

In my opinion (and that of other road users on the Uplyme website) these new markings make what is already a dangerous junction even more dangerous.

I would very much like to understand the reasoning behind this decision and urge you to remove the new markings as soon as possible.

The road markings installed at the A35/B3261 Lyme Road Junction Axminster aim to improve road-user safety at the junction, and have been designed in accordance with the Highways Agency Design Manual for Roads and Bridges TD 42 /95.

Safety improvements are brought about by the following measures:

o The use of red high-friction surfacing. Coloured surfacing in the hatched area (i.e. the ghost island) is used to improve conspicuousness and discourage vehicle encroachment;

o Double-white lines with road-studs are used to discourage overtaking on the immediate approach to the right-turn lane; and

o Double-white lines with road-studs are used to segregate opposing traffic flows along the right-turn lane.

The Design Manual for Roads and Bridges states that on single carriageway roads along which overtaking opportunity is limited a ghost island could induce unsafe driver behaviour, since the short length of wider road may be used by some drivers for overtaking. Measures that have been found to reduce the number of such manoeuvres at ghost island junctions include the use of double white lines along the hatching boundary at ghost island junctions. The double white lining system installed at the A35 / B3261 junction is fully in accordance with the layout recommended by the Highway Agencyís Design Manual for Roads and Bridges.

To be fair, I think in some ways he has a point. We have all seen drivers dangerously overtake across 'ghost islands', so measures to stop that would be welcome, but in this case it has caused a new problem.

I wrote back to Mr. Nurse, explaining my concerns and he responded asking how often we would estimate this might cause a problem for the westbound lane. Not having particularly watched that junction it's hard to say - what does everyone think ?

I think it will be more of a problem in the Summer when the tourists are back.

>I would be interested to know from your experience how often the queue of traffic blocks back to the hatching, and at what times of the day or year this happens most.

I am not a trained traffic monitor, but in my experience as a car driver and local resident (Uplyme) I would say that the A35 tends to be at its busiest during the Summer months when the tourists use it as a major East-West artery. Bank Holidays seem to be particularly bad, for example it can take several minutes to turn left onto the A35 from the B3165 (from Lyme Regis) and turning right there is almost impossible due to the nose to tail holiday and commercial traffic. Impatient drivers take unbelievable risks trying to do so and I have witnessed many near-misses at that junction.

To answer your question, I do not know how much traffic it would take to block the right turn lane for the B3261, but without the ability to use the ghost island as 'storage' for stationary right-turn traffic, the likelihood of stationary traffic in the westbound lane at times of heavy traffic is increased.

Chapter 2 of TD 50/04 Vol.6, Sec.2.26 says "The ghost island should be designed to provide adequate storage length for right turning vehicles..." however, with the current markings the entire ghost island is effectively out of bounds.

We have all seen drivers dangerously overtake across 'ghost islands'
G.

Does anyone believe that the mere colour of road markings will deter the behaviour that Geoff describes? This change will not be beneficial. On the contrary an added danger will be introduced._________________It's later than you think

Yes, but don't forget Rhodie, the vast majority of road users are careful and responsible and DO take note of the road markings. It is we who will be sitting waiting in the stationary westbound lane waiting to be shunted.

I think from Mr. Nurse's replies the intention was probably for the best, but in the implimentation they have created a new and possibly more dangerous situation.